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Yes...everyone thought I was MAD for researching autonomous solar-powered UAV data relay stations but now who's mad eh? ...seriously it's like the poor-mans co

Yes...everyone thought I was MAD for researching autonomous solar-powered UAV data relay stations but now who's mad eh? ...seriously it's like the poor-mans communication satellite...

coderdude 16y ago
Have you written about this somewhere? It's an intriguing idea that I'd like to read about. Did you go so far as to explore the technical issues? I recently got into UAVs because of http://diydrones.com/ http://diydrones.com/ and their ArduCopter http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/ http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/
- jimmyk 16y ago
  Well, in the United States at least, it is illegal to operate a drone unless you: A) have direct line of sight with the drone and B) can manually take over the drone at any time. This means you would need to have someone watching each drone unless you can successfully hide its operation from the government, which could be difficult since its mission is to relay electromagnetic signals back down to earth.
  - imajes 16y ago
    good point, but i think the original intent is to transmit information if the government began to censor the net. Therefore, you can imagine _anything_ you do is going to inhibit the free flow of information, therefore you're just as sensible to go ahead and and run some nice drones. :)
    - jasongullickson 16y ago
      Bingo. There are multiple mission scenarios and our intention is to support as many as are practical.
chopsueyar 16y ago
Weather balloons?
tomjen3 16y ago
Wouldn't it be an order of magnitude easier to make a simple gas powered balloon? You could hook it up with an altitude sensor and make sure it doesn't drift away.
- jasongullickson 16y ago
  Simpler yes, but where does the gas come from?
- borism 16y ago
  how do you make sure it doesn't drift away? unless you combine the plane and the balloon into the zeppelin...
jokermatt999 16y ago
I wouldn't think you could provide enough power via solar to make up for the weight of the panels. What's the expected life on these?
- azim 16y ago
  NASA has flown a few prototype solar powered UAVs. See wikipedia for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Pathfinder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Pathfinder
- jasongullickson 16y ago
  I think this was on HN the other day actually: http://www.defencetalk.com/zephyr-solar-powered-uav-soars-to-new-world-records-27581/ http://www.defencetalk.com/zephyr-solar-powered-uav-soars-to...

Yes...everyone thought I was MAD for researching autonomous solar-powered UAV data relay stations but now who's mad eh? ...seriously it's like the poor-mans communication satellite...

coderdude 16y ago

Have you written about this somewhere? It's an intriguing idea that I'd like to read about. Did you go so far as to explore the technical issues? I recently got into UAVs because of http://diydrones.com/ http://diydrones.com/ and their ArduCopter http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/ http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/

jimmyk 16y ago
Well, in the United States at least, it is illegal to operate a drone unless you: A) have direct line of sight with the drone and B) can manually take over the drone at any time. This means you would need to have someone watching each drone unless you can successfully hide its operation from the government, which could be difficult since its mission is to relay electromagnetic signals back down to earth.
- imajes 16y ago
  good point, but i think the original intent is to transmit information if the government began to censor the net. Therefore, you can imagine _anything_ you do is going to inhibit the free flow of information, therefore you're just as sensible to go ahead and and run some nice drones. :)
  - jasongullickson 16y ago
    Bingo. There are multiple mission scenarios and our intention is to support as many as are practical.

chopsueyar 16y ago

Weather balloons?

tomjen3 16y ago

Wouldn't it be an order of magnitude easier to make a simple gas powered balloon? You could hook it up with an altitude sensor and make sure it doesn't drift away.

jasongullickson 16y ago
Simpler yes, but where does the gas come from?
borism 16y ago
how do you make sure it doesn't drift away? unless you combine the plane and the balloon into the zeppelin...

jokermatt999 16y ago

I wouldn't think you could provide enough power via solar to make up for the weight of the panels. What's the expected life on these?

azim 16y ago
NASA has flown a few prototype solar powered UAVs. See wikipedia for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Pathfinder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Pathfinder
jasongullickson 16y ago
I think this was on HN the other day actually: http://www.defencetalk.com/zephyr-solar-powered-uav-soars-to-new-world-records-27581/ http://www.defencetalk.com/zephyr-solar-powered-uav-soars-to...